''Catalina Caper'' (also known as ''Never Steal Anything Wet'') is a campy 1967 musical comedy mystery film from Creator/CrownInternationalPictures starring Tommy Kirk. One of the last entries (if not ''the'' last) in the '60s beach party film genre exemplified by ''Film/BeachBlanketBingo,'' this film blends the beach format with a standard crime-caper comedy.

Tommy Kirk's other beach films include ''It's a Bikini World'' (1967), and two Creator/AmericanInternationalPictures features, ''Pajama Party'' (1965) and ''The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini'' (1966).

This film was shot on location on and around Santa Catalina Island, California.

While about half the movie is just music numbers featuring teens dancing to music (at one point being serenaded by Music/LittleRichard[[note]]who is clearly stoned off his gourd[[/note]]), there is an actual plot that noses in from time to time. An ancient scroll is stolen from a museum in Los Angeles. The next day, teenager Don Pringle (Kirk) arrives on Catalina Island with his friend Charlie Moss (Brian Cutler), who is determined to teach the Arizona boy what the swingin' beach party scene is all about, and also hook him up with his sister, Tina (Venita Wolf). However, on the boat ride over, Don is taken by the exotic beauty of vaguely foreign Katrina Corelli (Ulla Strömstedt) though she's on the island to accompany her fiance, the vaguely threatening Angelo (Lyle Waggoner). Meanwhile, another of Charlie's friends, Tad Duval (Peter Duryea), has arrived on the island along with his parents (Del Moore and Sue Casey); due to past history, he suspects they're up to something criminal. In reality, the parents have hired a burglar, Larry (Jim Begg), to steal the scroll from the museum so they can craft a forgery and sell it to their rich foreign mark Dino Lakopolis (Lee Deane). All the while, they're being trailed by hapless insurance investigator Fingers O'Toole (Robert Donner), who just wants to recover the scroll for the museum and hopefully arrest the larcenous Duvals in the process. After one of Lakopolis' men attempts to steal the scroll from the Duvals, it winds up in the water--leading to not one, but ''two'' under water scuba diving knife fights in the film as the teens get wise to the scheme.

Will the scroll be recovered? Will Don get lucky with Katrina? Will Fingers have another pratfall that fails to garner any laughs?

The movie is largely obscure now, though it was featured in the second season of ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' in 1990. For the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode, please go to the [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S02E04CatalinaCaper episode recap page]].

----!!This film provides examples of:

* AndStarring: Introducing Venita Wolf as "Tina" ("[[Theatre/WhosAfraidOfVirginiaWoolf Who's afraid of Venita Wolf]], anyway?") and Brian Cutler as "Charlie" ("[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pope_of_Greenwich_Village Charlie, they cut off my thumbs!]]").* AnimatedCreditsOpening** ImpossibleHourglassFigure: The mermaid in the credits sequence. ("Nice measurements... 36-2-85!")* BettyAndVeronica: Tina and "Creepy Girl" Katrina.** There's also a {{Gender Flip}}ped version, with Don and Angelo for Katrina.* ButtMonkey: Fingers is pretty much defined by his constant pratfalls. If there is even the slightest chance that he will trip, fall into the water, or create a scenario where someone slaps him, ''it will happen.'' After all of the abuse he suffers in the film, he finally can't even succeed at his original goal--arresting Arthur Duval for his numerous crimes--because his son Tad had secretly returned the scroll and thus left no evidence of Duval's crimes. * TheCaper: Though much of the film ignores the scroll arc entirely as the caper is successfully pulled at the start of the film and the rest of it is how the parents intend to unload the scroll.* ChronicVillainy: Discussed; Tad says the scroll must be returned to its owners mainly because his amoral parents would be unable to resist the urge to commit some crime with it.* DancePartyEnding: The film ends, naturally, with every single character in the film that wasn't a villain rocking out to a song that was used earlier in the movie. Even Fingers, who amazingly ''doesn't'' get a pratfall.* DefectiveDetective: Fingers suffers from ''terrible'' luck.* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: When telling about things to do on Catalina, Charlie mentions girls every other time.** Also ventures close to HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday territory, especially given that Tommy Kirk's homosexuality was known in Hollywood though not to the general public at the time.* HawaiianShirtedTourist: Larry* InformedAttractiveness: Katrina's pretty but somehow she manages to attract ''every single guy'' on the beach.** Charlie, who can't seem to go anywhere without at least three girls hanging off of him.* LoveableRogue: Theoretically, Arthur Duval and Larry.* MacGuffin: The scroll really just exists to add some semblance of a plot.* MonochromeCasting: Little Richard is the ''only'' black person in the entire movie. And he only appears in one short scene.* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Arthur Duval's voice and manner are clearly patterned after [[Radio/TheJackBennyProgram Jack Benny]].* OnlySaneMan: Tad is the only member of his family who is not involved in shadiness.* PairTheSpares: Don is immediately taken with Katrina, but Charlie sets him up with his sister Tina. Don almost immediately breaks off for Katrina when he finds her again on the beach. To get him jealous, Tina eventually grabs on to the unattached Tad, but ends up liking him better anyway.* PoliceAreUseless: The security at the museum utterly fails at keeping out intruders after hours. On top of that, he actually sees Tad right as he's put a high-profile stolen art piece back and doesn't even notice until ''after'' Tad has left.* RomanticFalseLead: Angelo* ScareEmStraight: InUniverse example; the kids conspire a ZanyScheme to not only recover the scroll, but scare the Duvals away from their life of crime.* SexyManInstantHarem: Charlie* StupidCrooks: Larry in particular is a terrible thief at the start of the film--making off with the scroll by sheer dumb luck while making a ton of noise and even knocking over priceless artifacts in the process. The parents aren't much better either, completely failing to even hang on to their valuable artifact. Finally, Lakopolis' minion ends up losing the scroll almost instantly by trying to make off with it ''when the parents were selling it to him in the first place.''* SwissCheeseSecurity: The art museum housing priceless artifacts has just one idiot security guard. Two utter rookies break in and easily steal a valuable piece of art (and later return it!) without drawing any attention.* ThematicThemeTune: "Never Steal Anything Wet," upgraded to TitleThemeTune in some re-releases.